On the night of March 13, two exotic dancers performed at a party for the Duke University Lacrosse team. The women, both African American, briefly left the party because the players had become aggressive, taunting them with racial slurs and reportedly threatening to sodomize them with broom handles. They returned shortly thereafter because several players had apologized and asked them to come back.

Later that night, one of the women reported to police that three men at the party had dragged her into a bathroom, where they beat her, strangled her, sodomized her, and raped her.

At 1:48 am on March 14, exactly 36 minutes after a local grocery store clerk called 911 to assist the distressed women, Ryan McFadyen, a sophomore on the lacrosse team, sent a mass e-mail to his teammates. The e-mail read in part: “tommrow [sic] night, after tonights [sic] show, ive [sic] decided to have some strippers over to edens 2c [his dorm room]. all [sic] are welcome..[sic] however there will be no nudity. I plan on killing bitches as soon as the walk in and proceeding to cut their skin off.” McFadyen further explained that he intended to achieve sexual gratification in the process. He signed the e-mail “41”—what police identify as his jersey number.

Players and their attorneys have denied the gang rape and battery allegations, claiming them to be “transparently false”, and up until and even since an informant tipped off police about the e-mail, the team members have remained united in their denial and silence.

Denial and silence, in spite of a medical report that indicates that the “victim had signs, symptoms, and injuries consistent with being raped and sexually assaulted vaginally and anally,” according to an affidavit. Denial and silence, in spite of broken fingernails found at the scene of the alleged assault (indicating that a struggle occurred). Denial and silence, in spite of the mass e-mail detailing desires to commit atrocious and violent acts to strippers, sent shortly after the women left.

So far, police have not leveled any charges relating to the allegations. Perhaps they never will. In spite of mounting evidence to the contrary, it is entirely possible that not enough evidence will be accrued to ever lead to any arrests. It’s even possible that the allegations are false.

But what if they’re not? What if the woman really was beaten, strangled, sodomized, and raped? Which is more repulsive—for three men to brutalize and rape a woman, or for 38 other men to refuse to speak out against their fellow rapist teammates?

For the sake of argument, let’s assume that the allegations are true. The point of this article is not to horrify and disgust. Rather, since I first heard about the reported gang rape, I have wondered: was this incident specific to Duke? Or could it have just as easily happened here?

There are three specific cultural factors that directly contributed to the incident and the subsequent reaction (or lack thereof) from the team members. In some ways, these factors are uncomfortably familiar. I can see glimmers, reflections, and even nearly precise replicas of them in Dartmouth’s culture. And I don’t have to look very hard. In other ways, however, I believe that Dartmouth has safeguards in place to prevent such a situation from occurring, or, in the very least, to prevent a similar situation from escalating to such an extreme.

The first contributing cultural factor is privilege. Duke University is one of the elite institutions of higher education in the United States. Duke’s website lists the tuition as $44,005 per year, which is $3,000 more than the median income of Durham, North Carolina—the city in which Duke is located. Dartmouth’s website lists our annual tuition as $43,341. Certainly not everyone at both institutions pays full tuition or hails from wealthy families. However, the culture of privilege is ubiquitous. Every Duke and Dartmouth student reaps the benefits of attending a university that practically oozes money. We bicker over COSO spending, outdated gym equipment, the lame bands that the Programming Board recruits. The woman who was reportedly raped by three members of the Duke Lacrosse team attends North Carolina Central University, a state-funded school also in Durham, NC, whose tuition is $3,500 per year. N.C. Central doesn’t have a lacrosse team.

The point is that often with privilege comes entitlement. We forget that we’re lucky to be here. Lucky to have what we have; lucky to enjoy what we enjoy. And often, we get angry and self-righteous when we are denied what we want—what we believe we rightfully deserve. What happens when that desire is for sex? Or to murder and skin strippers?

Another factor present in the situation is the racist undertone of the event. In addition to the two dancers’ reports of racist heckling, a neighbor told police that he saw the women drive away, and heard one of the players yell after them, “Thank your grandpa for my cotton shirt!”—a direct reference to slavery. Racism isn’t confined to Duke, in spite of an address that places it south of the Mason Dixon line. 26 out of the 41 players present at the party are from New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. Ryan McFadyen attended the Delbarton School in Morristown, New Jersey. According to facebook.com, at least 12 current and former Dartmouth students share McFadyen’s alma mater. For the most part, these lacrosse players weren’t southern whites reenacting their families’ slave-owning glory days. These men are privileged, white, northeastern racists. And my guess is that others of their ilk exist, and that not all chose to attend Duke.

The final contributing factor is the troubling psychological phenomenon of a collective, group mentality. These men don’t want to rat out their fellow teammates. The bonds of friendship, team unity, or peer pressure have so far proven stronger than the dictates of morality.

What would happen at Dartmouth if several members of a sports team or a fraternity gang raped an exotic dancer? Would the other teammates and brothers remain silent? Would someone dare speak out? We’re certainly not immune to the draw of group mentality or peer pressure, and it’s absolutely possible for a gang rape to occur here. However, I believe enough genuine men in every fraternity or on every sports team exist that should such an event happen at Dartmouth, there is not enough homogeneity in any one organization to allow for a similar silent response.

Then again, what do I know? I’ll probably never be in a situation where my theory about Dartmouth men is tested. Unlike the exotic dancer who reported the rape, I don’t have to strip to afford to go to school and raise my children. And I don’t often find myself in situations when an entire group of men have dehumanized me—because of classism, sexism, or racism—to the point where one of them finds it perfectly acceptable to send a mass blitz about his plans to kill and skin me.